Advice literature, as the term is understood in modern scholarly discourse, primarily denotes works of counsel for rulers and members of the political and cultural elites. Such compositions are also sometimes known as “mirrors for princes,” a phrase that served as a title for many mediaeval European works of political advice and has been adopted by Islamicists to describe similar books written in Arabic, Persian, and Turkish. The soliciting, offering, and receiving of advice or counsel constitute important elements in social relationships, and from antiquity on…

Ayşe Sıddıka (ʿĀyşe Ṣıddīqa, 1872–1903), also known as Ayşe Sıddıka Bint Mustafa (ʿĀyşe Ṣıddīqa Bint Muṣṭafā), was an Ottoman educator and a teacher at the Darülmuallimat (Dār al-Muʿallimāt, a teachers' training school for women) in Istanbul. She was born in Istanbul, and her father, Mazlumzade Mustafa Numan Efendi (Maẓlūmzāde Muṣṭafā Nuʿmān Efendi), was a religious scholar from Cuma-ı Bala (Cumʿa-i Bālā, present-day Blagoevgrad, in Bulgaria). Following the untimely death of her mother, Ayşe's fa…

“ Circle of Justice” (daire-i ʿadliye) is the name given by the Ottoman writer Kınālızāde Ali Çelebi (Qınālızāde ʿAlī Çelebi, d. 979/1572) to a political aphorism often written in a circle (Kınālızāde 3:1419) and to the concept behind it. The earliest extant version of the aphorism appeared in an anonymous Arabic encyclopaedic work probably from the fourth/tenth century, the Sirr al-asrār [Illustration 1]: The world is a garden, hedged about by sovereignty, Sovereignty is lordship, preserved by law, Law is policy, governed by the king, The king is a shepherd, supported by the army, The a…

Baki (Bāqī) is the pen name of Mahmud Abdülbaki (Maḥmūd ʿAbd al-Bāqī, 933–1008/1526–7–1600), who has been, from his time to the present, one of the most admired and emulated poets in the Ottoman tradition. His mastery of the kaside ( qaṣīda, panegyric) and gazel ( ghazal, lyric), his elegant use of Turkish, his playful use of refined rhetoric, and his sensitive reflections on nature and love are considered second to none. He was honoured as the Sultanü’ş-Şuara (Sulṭān al-Şuʿarāʾ, “Sultan of Poets”) and introduced a new style that influence…

Fakiri (Faqīrī) was the pen-name of a sixteenth-century minor Ottoman poet, who showed considerable originality in his choice of subjects and genres. His real name and date of birth are unknown; the sources only mention that he was from Kalkandelen (Qalqandelen), today’s Tetovo, near Üsküp (Skopje), and that he spent most of his life in Istanbul. The biographer Latifi (Laṭīfī, d. 990/1582) recounts that he worked as an imam ( imām, leader in public worship), hatip ( khaṭīb, preacher), remmal (geomancer), and tabip (ṭabīb, physician). According to the biographer Aşık (ʿĀşıq) Çe…

Aşık Mehmed b. Ömer b. Bayezid (Aşık Mehmed;ʿĀshiq Muḥammad), an Ottoman traveller and cosmographer, was born in Trabzon (in present-day Turkey) around 963–4/1555–6, as the son of a teacher in a local medrese ( madrasa). He spent most of his adult life travelling and serving alims ( ʿālims, including Kınalızade Hüseyin (Qınalızāde Ḥüseyn) and Taşköprüzade Kemaleddin (Ṭaşköprüzāde Kemāleddīn), d. 1030/1621), military officials (such as Özdemiroğlu Osman (Özdemiroghlu ʿOthmān) Paşa, d. 993/1585), and prince Mehmed (Meḥmed, the future Sultan Me…

Maşizade Fikri Çelebi (Māşīzāde Fikrī Çelebi) was a tenth/sixteenth-century Ottoman poet renowned for his mesnevis ( methnevīs). His real name was Derviş (Dervīş) and his pen name Fikri (Fikrī). He was born in Istanbul, probably towards the end of the reign of Selim (Selīm) I (r. 918–26/1512–20). His father, Şemseddin Ahmed (Şems al-Dīn Aḥmed) who died while working as mufti and muderris (professor) in Amasya, was a famous scholar of the period, Fikri followed in his footsteps and joined the ʿulemāʾ (ʿulamāʾ) at a young age. After completing his medrese ( madrasa, college) education, …

Figani (Fighānī, d. 938/1532) was the pen name of Ramazan (Ramaḍān) of Trabzon, an Ottoman poet who was executed for composing a couplet that accused the grand vizier İbrahim (İbrāhīm) Paşa (d. 942/1536) of idolatry for erecting three statues in front of his palace. When the couplet, which circulated openly, was attributed to Figani, the poet was quickly arrested, exhibited publicly on a mule, and strangled at the fish market in Istanbul’s Eminönü district. Executions of poets were rare in Ottoman Istanbul, and this event seems to have aroused great consternation in t…

Cem Sadisi (Cem Saʿdīsi, Saʿdī-i Cem, “Saʿdī of [Prince] Cem”) was a ninth/fifteenth century high culture ( divan) poet and the best known of the “Cem Poets”. His real name is Sadullah (Saʿdullāh), although in his poems he used the pen name Sadi (Saʿdī). His father’s name was Mustafa. He was born in Sivrihisar (formerly Karahisar, Seferihisar) in west central Anatolia (Beyani [Beyānī],40; Āli [ʿĀlī], 137), but some biographers give his birthplace as Siroz, an area near to the larger town of Sivrihisar, close to the province (eyalet) Karaman in south central Anatolia (Latifi [Latīf…

Arşi (ʿArşī) Dede was born in Tire (Western Anatolia, near Izmir) sometime in the tenth/sixteenth century, hence his sobriquet Tireli (resp. Tirevī in Ottoman). Little is known about his life, only that he was an educated man who initially worked as a müderris (professor) before becoming a Mevlevi (Mevlevī) dervish and moving to the Peloponnese (Mora). He stayed in a number of different places there before his death, the date of which is unknown, in a Mevlevi convent (tekke/tekye). When Âşık (ʿĀşıq) Çelebi (d. 1572/979) wrote his Tezkire ( Tedhkire, book of poets’ biographies, compl…

Firdevsi-yi Rumi (Firdevsī-yi Rūmī, b. 857/1453; also with the attributes Tavil/Ṭavīl, Uzun, Osmani/ʿOthmānī, Türk) was an Ottoman author and poet, known by the pen name Firdevsi. Some copies of his works record his real name as İlyas b. Hızır (İlyās b. Khıḍr) or Şerefeddin Musa (Şerefeddīn Mūsā), with the latter now widely accepted. His name has also been given as Orhan (Orkhān), based on “Orkhān b. Geñek,” which was recorded in his Teşkhīṣ al-insān (“The identification of men”), as well as on “adı [named] Orkhān Çelebi,” in his Münazara-i seyf ü kalem ( Münāẓara-i seyf ü qalem, “The deba…

Arşi (ʿArşī) was the pen-name of Mahmud (Maḥmūd) Çelebi, who was probably born sometime in the early tenth/sixteenth century, in Yenipazar (Rumeli), whence his by-name Yenipazarlı (Yenipāzārlı). Information concerning his life is sparse, and the sources do not always agree in their reports. There are even differing opinions on his name: according to most tezkires ( tez kires, poets’ biographies) his name was Mahmud (Maḥmūd), but Riyazi (Riyāżī, d. 1054/1644), Şemseddin Sami (Şemseddīn Sāmī, d. 1904), and the Sicill-i ʿOsmānī all state that his name was Mehmed (Meḥmed), alt…

Avni (ʿAvnī) was the pen name of Mehmed (Meḥmed) II (r. 848–50/1444–6 and 855–86/1451–81), who was both the Ottoman sultan and a poet. The son of Murad (Murād) II (r. 824–48/1421–44 and 850–5/1446–51) and Hüma Hatun (Hümā Khatun), Mehmed II was born on 26 Recep (Rajab) 835/March 1432 in Edirne. Writing under the pen-name Avni (ʿAvnī, “pertaining to aid”), Mehmed himself became a well-known literary figure whose divan ( dīvān, collection of a poet’s literary output) still survives. He was a sultan, statesman, and military leader as well as an intellectual interest…

Beyani (Beyānī, d. 1006/1597), whose real name was Mustafa (Muṣṭafā) and who was known to have had the nickname Carullahzade (Cārullāhzāde), was an Ottoman author about whose life we have little information. While the majority of sources inform us that he was born in Rusçuk—currently a town in Bulgaria—others claim that his birthplace was Niğbolu (also in modern Bulgaria). Beyani began his education in his home town before furthering it in Istanbul. Having received the talik icazet ( taʿlīq icāzet, talik) from Şükrüllah Halife (Şükrüllāh Khalīfe, d. 950/1543) and become a …

Bahari (Bahārī) (885/6–958/1481–1551) was an Ottoman poet. He was born in Tırhala (Trikala) in Rumeli (present-day Thessaly), and given the name Ali (ʿAlī) by his parents. His pen-name was initially Kemali (Kemālī), but later he changed it to Bahari. Kadıasker Seyyidi Çelebi (Qāḍī-ʿasker Seyyidī Çelebi) made him a mülazim ( mülāzim, lecturer), and he originally worked as a müderris (professor) in Karaferye (Béroia, present-day Vérria in Macedonia) and Edirne. Âşık (ʿĀşıq) Çelebi (d. 979/1572) states in his tezkire ( tedhkire-i şuʿarā, poets’ biographies) that it is evident …

Âşık (ʿĀşıq) Çelebi (926–79/1520–72) was an Ottoman poet and author whose real name was Pir Mehmed (Pīr Meḥmed). He was born in Vılçıtrın (Vučitrn), close to Prizren in Rumeli. He was very proud that he was a direct descendant of Muḥammad, the Prophet of Islam, as his father’s side could be traced back to ʿAlī, Muḥammad’s cousin and son-in-law. His ancestors had originally come from Baghdad, but moved to Anatolia. His father Seyyid Ali (ʿAlī) had a good command of Persian, was very good at composing muammas ( muʿammās, riddles in verse), and he also wrote chronograms according to the Abjad cal…

Born in Baghdad, Ahdi’s (ʿAhdī’s) real name, according to Aşık Çelebi (ʿĀşıq Çelebi, 926–79/1520–72) and Riyazi (Riyīżā, d. 1054/1644), was Mehdi (Mehdī), while according to Ali (ʿĀlī, 948–1008/1541–1600) it was Ahmed (Aḥmed) and he was known as Ahdi-i Bağdadi (ʿAhdī-yi Baghdādī). Ahdi was born into an intellectual family, his father being a man called Şemseddin (Şemseddīn) who had written poems under the pen-name Şemsi. After completing his education, Ahdi left Baghdad for Ottoman lands in 960/155…

The Turkish term çar-ender-çar (çār-ender-çār, from Pers. chār-andar-chār, lit., four-by-four) is a term used for gazels ( ghazels) or kasides ( qaṣīdes) whose couplets—using one or several of various rhetorical figures from the divan ( dīvān, high culture) poetry tradition that involve the ordering of concepts and/or images within a couplet or couplets—all feature four parallel elements in each hemistich; these figures include, for example, leff ü neşr (parallelism or chiasmus), taksim ( taqsīm, a type of parallelism in which the connection between parallel elements…

Arif (ʿĀrif) Çelebi (Şeh-nameci Fethullah Çelebi/Şeh-nāmeci Fetḥullāh Çelebi, d. after 971/1563–4) was the first holder of the post of şeh-name-guy ( şeh-nāme-gūy, c. 952?–71/1545?–63), established during the reign of Sultan Süleyman (Süleymān) I (r. 926–74/1520–66). The şeh-nameci, a term used interchangeably with şeh-name-guy in Ottoman sources, was the composer of şeh-names ( şeh-nāmes, king’s books), historical works composed consciously in the literary style of the Shāh-nāma of Firdawsī and generally containing a chronological narrative of part or all of…

Kınalızade Hasan Çelebi (Qınalızāde Ḥasan Çelebi) (953–1012/1546–1604) was an Ottoman poet and author of a tezkire-i şuara (tedhkire-i şuʿarāʾ, biographical chronicle of poets). He was born in Bursa in 953/1546, into a family known by the name of Kınalızadeler (Qınalızādeler). A disciple of the Ottoman kadı (qāḍī, judge) and scholar Ebussuud (Abū l-Suʿūd) Efendi (897–982/1491–1574), he received an education that matched his family’s high status. He worked as a müderris (mudarris, professor) and kadı (qāḍī) in a number of locations, including Bursa, Edirne, Gelibolu (G…